There is an enormous amount of publicity being built up for the Great American Eclipse next year, but there’s another eclipse coming up much sooner, and closer to home (for me, at least): The Great African Solar Eclipse of 2016!

Sure, it’s only an annular eclipse and I won’t be anywhere near the path of totality (yes I know that strictly speaking, annular eclipses don’t ever reach totality. But you know what I mean!), but it’s tomorrow so you don’t have to wait long!  And if you are one of the over a billion people living in Africa, you should be able to see at least part of the show from your own home.

The Astronomical Society of South Africa will be running a live webcast of the eclipse, featuring feeds from various locations (teachers can use this to demonstrate how the view changes from different latitudes and maybe convince a few flat-earther’s that they’re barking up the wrong tree), but we’ll be mixing up things by showing still images captured by amateur astrophotographers around Africa, and other related imagery.

If you want more information about the eclipse, visit ASSA’s official African Solar Eclipse of 2016 page.  Otherwise, you can just watch the feed below.

If you have a decent camera with proper filtration and would like to contribute footage to the feed, send me an email at uastronomer@gmail.com before 08h00 on 1st September, Central African Time (although the sooner we get in touch, the better!).  Remember, if you want to watch the Moon pass over the Sun with your own eyes, use proper filtration.  The best is to get hold of proper eclipse viewers, which should be available at any public eclipse viewing event (you can find a list of locations here).  Failing that, build a simply pinhole viewer and watch indirectly – for directions, refer the official Eclipse page linked above.  However you go about it, enjoy the show and tell a friend!